Ventura County Child Protective Services dropped the ball again, and tragically, another child is dead. Children who have to be removed from their home repeatedly for safety reasons should not be returned to their parents, but they are.

Kimberly Lopez was last seen by a social worker on March 10, 2015, yet CPS did not file a missing person report until September 2016, about 18 months later. In 2017, Kimberly’s father told officials that she died shortly after her third birthday.

What happened there? Why did CPS wait so long to file the missing person report? Why weren’t her parents court-ordered to immediately surrender Kimberly? What were the terms of the family reunification plan? I’m pretty sure that plan didn’t include allowing Kimberly to stay with relatives in Mexico, which is what her parents told CPS.

What about Alaina Stockdill? In 2010, she was drowned by her mother in the bathtub at their apartment in Ventura. Alaina had also been reunited more than once with her mother after she lost custody. Alaina’s mother successfully pleaded insanity at trial and is now serving 25 years to life. Why didn’t CPS continue to monitor the mother’s mental state after Alaina was placed back in her care?

It appears CPS draws up a family reunification plan, throws in some parenting classes, and the child is returned to their dangerous parents — only to be removed again and again. Being a parent is a privilege, not a right. Maybe CPS will finally stop making family reunification the No. 1 goal after Ventura County rightfully gets sued for failing to protect the children it is supposed to be serving.

Alissa Vizzo, Ventura

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